U.S. asks for Moscow consent to instate new Ambassador John Tefft - newspaper

The United States has requested Moscow's tentative agreement to appoint John Tefft as the new U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Kommersant wrote on Monday.

"Washington asked for Moscow's agreement to [appoint] new Ambassador to Russia John Tefft several days ago," sources close to the Department of State told the newspaper. Sources in the Russian diplomatic community confirmed that information.

The newspaper said the position of the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow had been vacant since February when the previous Ambassador, Michael McFaul, stepped down.

Sources in the Department of State told Kommersant the Barack Obama administration chose the candidate for the new ambassador in April. The newspaper noted that Tefft headed the U.S. diplomatic mission to Ukraine from November 2009 to August 2013 and occupied the ambassadorial position in Vilnius and Tbilisi before that. But U.S. diplomatic sources told Kommersant that circumstance did not impede his appointment to the position in Moscow.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.